[MPWG] A. canadensis re new book and NC Medicinal herb projec t

wendy.applequist at mobot.org wendy.applequist at mobot.org
Thu Nov 3 09:51:41 CST 2005


Well, I don't know if FDA-bashing on this government forum is PC or not, but
I agree with you that FDA has shown plenty of bias over the years, going
after safe herbs like ginseng while letting pharmaceutical drugs with very
serious side effects have a pass.  Particularly, since you mention comfrey,
they don't like this herb because it has PAs, yet they announced that if
someone came up with a PA-free extract they would prevent its sale because
the absence of the undesirable PAs made the product a "new dietary
ingredient"!  If I picked the nasty little seeds off a strawberry before I
sold it, would the juicy part be a new dietary ingredient?  Meanwhile, they
are delaying a black-box warning on ADHD drugs that cause liver failure,
because that might discourage someone somewhere from force-feeding it to her
four-year-old.  Oh well.
 
As far as I know there is no effort to overturn the ban on AA-containing
plants and I think ABC and AHPA are much too smart to try.  The chance that
anyone has ever suffered or would ever suffer kidney failure from even
very-long-term use of a low-AA plant like wild ginger may be one in a
bazillion, but (especially given the potential for interaction with common
pharmaceuticals) it probably is not zero.  Wild ginger has never been a
top-selling herb, and it has no culinary or medicinal benefits that cannot
be gained from other plants of unquestionable safety.  Try to overturn that
ban, and the anti-herb fanatics can say "Look, these herbal advocates want
to be able to sell you products with stuff in them that causes kidney
cancer!"  It's not good press.  There is an organized effort now to do away
with one herb after another (kava, black cohosh) based on idiosyncratic or
coincidental case reports of liver disease, although the products clearly
carry no such risks for most users.  Let's fight that battle and not waste
time trying to fight for products whose potential risks for average users
have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
 
Wendy

-----Original Message-----
From: Cafesombra at aol.com [mailto:Cafesombra at aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 9:12 AM
To: MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: Re: [MPWG] A. canadensis re new book and NC Medicinal herb project



Thanks for these comments Wendy, good points.
 
Maybe I am out of it which is likely, but is there any real consolidated
effort to counter these FDA bans?  I am sure ABC and AHPA are working on it,
and maybe you or someone can just kindly direct me to a webpage detailing
the efforts.  But it is extremely ludicrous to me that FDA is banning and
restricting "toxic" herbs like A. canadensis, Comfrey, Borage and the like,
when they not necessarily banning toxic OTCs and pharmeceuticals and
favorite foods and drugs (tobacco comes to mind) in similar fashion?   I am
sure a pharmaceutical exec would argue that's not true, but seriously is
there any real effort going on to reclaim the use of Borage, Comfrey, etc?
I mean seriously, we ought to ban sugar, high fructose corn syrup,
hydrogenated oils etc if we are worrying about even a miniscule chance of
someone getting hurt from ingesting plant substances known to be potentially
dangerous...
 
As for A. canadensis, it's a very good point that anticipating markets may
be misguided.  however, anticipating need for the medicine may not be such a
bad idea.  Money is useful but it ain't medicine.
 
Best regards, Jennifer C.
 
 

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